Near field communication (NFC) refers to short-range wireless radio communication based on NFC standards. While the term ‘short-range’ is not precisely defined, the maximum distance for NFC radio communication is about 20 centimeters (about 8 inches) at the time of filing of this patent application. Without limitation, NFC radio communication typically occurs over distances on the order of 4 centimeters (about 1.5 inches). NFC is an open platform technology that is governed by the ECMA-340 standard and the ISO/IEC 18092 standard. It is understood that NFC standards continue to evolve as the technology and applications of the technology are elaborated and refined.
NFC radio communication may be used for financial transactions such as completing a payment transaction from a mobile phone encapsulating an electronic credit card and/or debit card to a point-of-sale (POS) terminal. NFC radio communication may be used to provide personal identification and/or to electronically access physical spaces, for example to provide a student identification, an employee identification, a medical identification; to activate a badge reader to unlock an entry door; to access a hotel room; to access a rental car. NFC radio communication may be used for communicating content such as reading explanatory information from an NFC tag coupled to a placard in a museum or in a retail display. NFC radio communication may be used for downloading an audio or video presentation, for example an audio tour of a museum or other exhibition. Payment transactions and access NFC sessions may be short lived, for example beginning and ending in less than three seconds. Communication NFC sessions may be longer lived and may take place over tens of seconds or over more than a minute of time. As the size of data transferred over NFC communication sessions increases, it can be expected that the time duration of communication NFC sessions will increase.